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Should I download Ubuntu for my HP Chromebook 14? (ARM powered)

yus0359

Posted 30 November 2014 - 07:26 PM

yus0359

New Member

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1 posts

I have a (new version) HP chromebook 14 with a NVIDA tegra K1 processor. I don't like the Chrome OS and want to switch to Ubuntu, but I heared that Ubuntu (its chrome downloaders, ex. crouton/chrubuntu) is for Celeron processors and not ARM. What would be the problems I would encounter if I switched to Ubuntu, and is there a version of Ubuntu for ARM specifically/work perfectly with my computer? (I would prefer not to pay for the OS). How could I make it work?

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terry1966

Posted 01 December 2014 - 05:55 PM

terry1966

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1,143 posts

sorry can't really answer the "should you install ubuntu" question, it is your machine so it's upto you to decide if you should or not.
is it possible on an arm based chromebook then yes it is, from my understanding the recommended method is to use crouton on arm chromebooks.

something else for you to consider is what desktop you want to install.
for example from the linked guide it states

Type sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -t xfce and press Enter

which will install ubuntu lts with the xfce desktop

yet if you used this command

sudo sh -e ~/Downloads/crouton -r saucy -t unity

it would install the unity desktop on the saucy salamander version of ubuntu.

the command and it's options are explained in the earlier crouton link provided where i asked you to make sure you read everything.

also here's some quotes to take heed of from the guide before deciding if you want to go ahead and install ubuntu.

A few words of caution before progressing. Firstly, putting your device into Developer Mode will wipe all locally stored data, so please ensure you have made adequate backups of everything important. Secondly, you are removing an important level of Chromebook’s security, as the machine will no-longer verify or authenticate the Chrome OS on start-up, which could leave you open to potential attacks. Finally, remember any modifications you make are not supported by Google and may void your warranty.

If you have an ARM-based machine, you will see better results by using the Crouton method as described further down the page.

Before you start please be aware that if you have a ARM-based machine, several Linux apps (including Skype) will not work, as they are only designed to run on Intel architecture.

On an ARM Chromebook like the Samsung Chromebook, you’re a bit limited in what you can do. Some programs don’t run on ARM, so you can’t run Minecraft and other closed-source applications that haven’t been compiled for ARM Linux. You have access to a variety of open source tools and desktop applications that can be recompiled for ARM, but most closed-source applications won’t work on ARM.